We took Mom to the airplane beach (Maho) to watch the large jets come in for low landings and sandblasting take-offs. We were sufficiently thrilled. As we passed this dire warning, mom and I laughed about us exposing our "old mother" to something dangerous and how irresponsible some people might think we are after seeing this sign. And in fact, one of the jumbo jets turned for takeoff before we expected and we got blasted with sand. We were supposed to be out of the line of fire but never anticipated the premature turn. There was a plane on approach for its landing just as the jumbo jet was getting ready for takeoff so we thought maybe the big guy got in a hurry. We had sand in our hair, clothes, everywhere. But we all thought it was great fun.

These two rascals were having a lazy moment and got caught by the ever-observant photographer. They were napping like this just a few hours after I got the photo of the man and his dog in the Marigot market.

We finally have a reprieve from the crazy winds we've endured for the past couple of weeks. These are fair weather cumulus clouds that can follow very windy conditions. Ed told me this and when I accused him of making things up, he brought out his clouds book and showed me the photo. There it was. He doesn't usually make things up, but I give him a hard time anyway to keep him on his toes.

We ate a wonderful lunch at a French bistro on a side street in Philipsburg. It was hot without any wind (it's all or nothing with that darned wind) so we didn't linger long but saw all we needed to. Ed tried on flip-flops to no avail. Back for a beautiful sunset in the lagoon (see photos) and a good bottle of French wine with scrumptious goat cheese and crackers. Mother was tired from the day and forced herself to stay up until 9. It is easy going to bed very early on a boat once the sun sets, dinner is finished, the dishes washed. And it's also easy waking very early, as mom did at 4:30 that morning.

Our friend Brad was kind enough to volunteer his expert dog-sitting services while we tooled around the island on various bus vans. We went to Phillipsburg for lunch, then on to see what the French Quarter looked like (not much to see) and then back for a quick shopping adventure at Cost-U-Less. Finally we hailed another bus back to the Dutch bridge where we dinghied home to Skylark. It was a fun adventure. Meanwhile, back on Brad's boat, Luna had apparently refused to get in Brad's dinghy for a beach walk and errands run and when we picked her up, Brad yelled out, "Good bye Luna, you coward!" All in good fun. What he didn't know was that Luna wanted to be picked up and carried into his dinghy from the deck of the boat. We forgot to explain the protocol before leaving on our excursion. She was probably thinking, "Excuse me? I do NOT jump into the dinghy from high boat decks!" Luna is very fond of Brad and they have a good time together.

I told my mother before her trip down here that if she brought white pants for her visit, they were apt to get dirty from sitting on the dinghy and climbing up on tall docks. So what does she do with this information? Brings her white pants but sews a "fanny apron" to wear in the dinghy. Actually, she made two of them. This is Mom modeling her apron; there is probably a market for just this sort of thing among cruisers. Classic Mary!